Artistic Itineraries between Argentina and Spain(1880-1930) | National Museum of Fine Arts
Exhibitions
The National Museum of Fine Arts will host the exhibition "An Artistic Journey Between Argentina and Spain (1880-1930)" on Thursday, April 16, at 6 p.m. The exhibition features over 60 works and historical documents, highlighting the personal connections, exchanges, and influences between artists from both countries. This exhibition, curated by researchers Paola Melgarejo and Patricia Corsani of the Florencia Galésio Museum of Fine Arts, showcases paintings, sculptures, prints, and objects from the museum and other institutions. It is part of a Spanish-Latin American exchange program facilitated by the Department of Fine Arts, Faculty of Philosophy and Literature, University of Granada, Andalusia. “The museum's researchers set out to reconstruct the journeys of Argentine artists whose works are in the museum's collection to the Iberian Peninsula for enlightenment and exploration,” explains Andrés Duprat, director of the Fine Arts Museum. “They also investigated the itineraries of Spanish painters who visited our country, coming here seeking inspiration or to participate in exhibitions.” In fact, the exhibition begins with the first trips Argentine artists took to the Iberian Peninsula in the late 19th century. Instead of France or Italy—favorites of the 1980s generation of painters—they opted for art-inspiring journeys to Madrid, Granada, Vigo, Seville, Barcelona, Toledo, or Mallorca. Under the guidance of renowned masters such as Eduardo Chicharo, Ignacio Zuloaga, and Elmenegilldo Anglada Camaraza, these travelers incorporated Spanish landscapes and themes into their paintings while also exchanging ideas with other contemporary artists. “These trips gave Argentinians the opportunity to discover a learning center highly regarded for its rich artistic and cultural traditions,” the curator stated. “Just as Zuloaga traveled to Castile seeking inspiration, upon returning to Argentina, painters such as Jorge Bermudaez or Cesareo Bernardo de Quiros depicted scenes, landscapes, and figures in the Argentine interior, incorporating their views of the local geography and their unique insights into national art,” they added. The exhibition also showcases the consolidation of Buenos Aires as a major market for Spanish art between 1880 and 1930, thanks to the local economic boom and the visionary leadership of art dealers such as the Catalan artist José Altár. This commercial prosperity coincided with the founding of the National Museum of Fine Arts in 1895. Under the management of Eduardo Schiaffino, the museum began collecting works by Spanish artists, including Joaquín Solola, Santiago Rucinho, and Eliseo Mefren, primarily through donations and bequests from collectors such as Palmenio Pinheiro and Ángel Roverrano. The exhibition extends into the 1920s, a time when Argentine artists gained significant recognition in Spain through the exhibition, while a new generation of artists, such as Antonio Berni and Nora Borges, began to engage with European avant-garde art, thereby revolutionizing their visual language. Finally, the exhibition includes a special section on Argentina's participation in the 1929 Seville Ibero-American Exposition. At that time, Argentina's pavilion aimed to blend European traditions with its American roots. The exhibition also includes Argentinians Emilio Caraffa, Alfredo Gramajo Gutiérrez, Severo Rodríguez Etchart, José Antonio Terry, Francisco Vidal, Rodolfo Franco, Gregorio López Naguil, Tito Cittadini, and Léonie Matisse. Works by Matthis and Francisco Bernareggi, among others. Besides the artists mentioned above, other notable Spanish artists include Julio Romero de Torres, Dario de Regoyos Valdés, Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor, Mariano Fortuni, and Ramón de Zubiaure Aguirrezabal.
